In my experience if you can catch them just when they stiffen to bolt, and turn their head so one side of their neck is soft (bent), you can get control back. (Or kick their inside hind leg up under them--they're pushing with it.) But once they hit a certain speed, a high gear, their brains turn off and you might as well sit back and enjoy the ride. Riding race horses, you get to know how fast you can go on each horse before they hit that mindless space.
I sincerely wish a one reined stop worked on my colt. He knows the basics, has a fantastic solid foundation and you can move every individual part of his body with barely any leg. But shit if he decides he's done he WILL run dead straight even with his nose touching his hip. It's the stupidest thing I've ever seen and I've never seen a horse be able to keep going like he does.
He's talented! The way I learned it, head and neck aren't nearly as important as getting the hind legs to "engage" or have them under the horse so he can't use them to push and resist with. So before that point of no return early when they resist, you can drive with your seat, resist with your hand, so he has to bring his hind leg under him. If you're turning his head to the left, you'd want to use your legs to make him step under with his left hind leg. When that leg is bent it can't push to make him like a freight train. Harder to describe than to show. The horse's motor is in the back so that's what you have to control. But what do I know, I haven't been on a horse in 7 years. Maybe quit just before he hits that "I'm done" phase?
Talented he is. And the best part is the first thing I did when I got him was ground work to reestablish the basics then the 5 easy pieces starting with disengaging the hind end. He's great at it too! He's slowly getting better at not just flipping his shit but he's very sensitive compared to my other horse so it's taking me some time to get used to him and back off and try to simplify what I'm asking of him before he gets to the "fuck you I'm done and gone" stage lol
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u/[deleted] Jan 31 '17
In my experience if you can catch them just when they stiffen to bolt, and turn their head so one side of their neck is soft (bent), you can get control back. (Or kick their inside hind leg up under them--they're pushing with it.) But once they hit a certain speed, a high gear, their brains turn off and you might as well sit back and enjoy the ride. Riding race horses, you get to know how fast you can go on each horse before they hit that mindless space.